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Saturday, 11 June 2016

Project: Vein Finder

For the past 2 weeks I've had a side project going and now it's ready to share. I call it Project: Vein Finder.

Project: Vein Finder powered and ready

If you're wondering what a vein finder is, it's a specialized flashlight used by medical professionals to locate veins under the skin when starting i.v. lines or giving injections.

Vein Finder prototype ready for testing

Basic operation is fairly simple, flip the switch to turn it on and hold it about 6 inch above the section of skin you're searching for veins, the red light acts as a highlighter for veins and makes it easier to see them.

Tools needed are a 3D printer, a decent multi-meter, needle nose pliers, wirestripers, and elecrical tape to insulate the internal connections. The internal circuit is fairly simple, just connect the positive lead from the battery holder to the switch, switch to the positive leads of the LEDs in parallel, negative leads of the LEDs to a 51 Ohm resistor independently, and finally connect the resistors to the negative lead of the battery holder.